“The customer is the most
important visitor to our establishment. He is not dependent on us. We depend on
him. He does not disturb us in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an alien in our business. He is a part of it. We do not do him a favour when we
serve him. He does us a favour by making it possible for us” said Mahatma Gandhi half a century ago
which defines many aspects of marketing. So let’s start with exploring the word
marketing.
Marketing is one of
the most complex and challenging functions performed by every business firm. The
term marketing is very comprehensive. Marketing starts well before production
commences and ends only after rendering after-sale satisfaction. It is the set
of those activities necessary and incidental to bring about exchange
relationships. It is the skill of selecting and fulfilling consumer desires in
such a way that a dose of money put in brings back maximum return. The American
Marketing Association has defined marketing as “The performance of business
activities that direct the flow of goods and services from producer to user. ’’
But this definition has certain limitations. It does not cover all the
functions of marketing in the present society. It merely concentrates on the
physical flow of goods from the centre of production to the centre of
consumption.
Today the consumer is
the king of the market. But the definition given by AMA does not say anything
about the consumer’s needs and desires or about customer satisfaction.
This is thus, a
product-oriented or sales-oriented definition and is fit for a seller’s market.
In the modern marketing concept, marketing has a very important role to play.
The meaning, scope and functions of marketing have expanded. Nowadays marketing
plays an important role in product and planning and demand forecasting. Many
researchers gave their definition.
William J. Stanton has
given the following definition of marketing. “Marketing is a total system of
interacting business activities designed to plan, price, promote and distribute
want satisfying products and services to present and potential customers.’’
According to Philip Kotler “Marketing is the analysis, planning, implementation and control of programmes designed to bring about the desired exchange with target audiences for the purpose of personal and mutual gain. It depends heavily on the adoption and coordination of product, price, promotion and place for achieving effective response.”
This definition covers a good deal of marketing function. It contains the main elements of modern marketing management, comprise administrative activities and suggest ideas of the marketing mix and marketing segmentation.
By- Shivani Awasthi (FullFry)
